Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department will publish full details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for 2026, including eligibility criteria and option specifications.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will provide more detail on the new SFI offer at the NFU Conference in February ahead of publishing the full scheme details before the first application window opens in June.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect livestock in West Dorset from distress and injury caused by fireworks.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 18 November 2025 to the hon. Member for Halesowen, PQ UIN 89247.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will allocate additional funding to (a) support farmers and (b) strengthen UK food security.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to farming and food security is steadfast. Supporting British farmers and boosting the nation’s food security are key priorities for the Government. Following the spending review, Defra has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will allocate funding to support rural communities with (a) infrastructure and (b) service delivery costs in the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to improving the quality of life for people living and working in rural areas, so that we can realise the full potential of rural business and communities.
Rural communities make an important contribution to the UK economy and in 2023, rural areas contributed £259 billion to England’s Gross Value Added (GVA), representing 12.2% of the total GVA for England.
The Government recognises the additional challenges they face with respect to infrastructure resilience and essential service delivery, and Defra works across government to ensure that these factors are appropriately reflected when funding decisions are made.
In June, departmental budgets across Government were set up to 2029/30.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will allocate funding to support mental health services for farmers in the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since May 2024, Defra has funded the Farmer Welfare Grant, providing £500k to support charity projects that improve the mental health and wellbeing of farmers in England. The fund, which runs until March 2026, supports projects designed to offer tailored support to farmers and their families as well as prevent further cases of poor mental health by helping to build resilience within farming communities, and deliver a range of essential services including the development of new online resources, provision of workshops, training events and networking opportunities, and one-to-one support.
In addition, this Government is investing in mental health to ensure it receives the same attention as physical health. This includes the hiring of 8,500 new mental health support workers, which will reduce delays and provide faster treatment closer to people’s homes – including in rural communities.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help mitigate the potential impact of US bioethanol imports on (a) animal feed prices and (b) UK producers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continue to monitor potential impacts on feed prices and the wider food sector from the recent changes. By-products of the bioethanol process are used in the agri-food sector. These include Distillers’ Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) which is used in high protein animal feed as well as CO2 which is used in slaughter, packaging, and beverage carbonation. DDGS also comes from other sources and there are other ingredients that can be used.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing subsidies to support farmers to (a) introduce and (b) maintain beekeeping.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Figures from the annual hive count suggests that the number of beekeepers has remained relatively stable and is not declining. Defra supports beekeepers through the work of the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit which operates our bee pest surveillance programmes and provides free training and advice to beekeepers, including on pest and disease recognition. Effective pest and disease control is important for preventing spread to other apiaries and pollinators.
Defra supports pollinators through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Landscape Recovery, in that the schemes offer a choice of support for more regenerative approaches to farming, and creation or restoration of habitats in appropriate areas. We are working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding, and further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to provide subsidies for farmers who diversify into beekeeping.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Figures from the annual hive count suggests that the number of beekeepers has remained relatively stable and is not declining. Defra supports beekeepers through the work of the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit which operates our bee pest surveillance programmes and provides free training and advice to beekeepers, including on pest and disease recognition. Effective pest and disease control is important for preventing spread to other apiaries and pollinators.
Defra supports pollinators through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Landscape Recovery, in that the schemes offer a choice of support for more regenerative approaches to farming, and creation or restoration of habitats in appropriate areas. We are working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding, and further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly.